Suspicion. Uncertainty. Faith.
Theatre Aspen’s next production doesn’t shy away from heavy themes.
“Doubt: A Parable” takes place at a Catholic school, where a nun suspects a priest of sexual misconduct with a student. And it’s set in the 1960s, a decade of significant social change.
“It was a very explosive time, so to speak,” said Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba, who plays the conservative nun Sister Aloysius in Theatre Aspen’s production.
“And a lot of changes were going on in the Catholic Church at that time,” Ziemba said in a Zoom interview. “So people were questioning and thinking, ‘what's going on? What do I believe? … Is it necessary? Is it right? Am I worthy?’”
The play by John Patrick Shanley opens this Friday and runs through July 29 at the Hurst Theatre in Aspen. It’s sandwiched between two musicals on Theatre Aspen’s calendar — “Beautiful” closed on July 8 and “Rent” opens on Aug. 4 — and is the first mainstage play the company has produced since 2019.
Reporter Kaya Williams spoke with Ziemba about “Doubt” and her involvement in the show.
***
Karen Ziemba: It's all about certainty, what you believe, and whether you trust the people that you work with, that you care for, your leaders and everything, whether you believe that they will do right, and that certainty of whether you need to stand up and say something or not.
There’s so many things going on, it’s really difficult to describe, other than the fact that it's a four-character play with these characters from the mid 1960s, and what was going on at that time, and what is continuing till now.
Kaya Williams: Now, how have you been preparing for this role, not just logistically, but kind of emotionally for what you're working with in this play?
Ziemba: A lot of it is the way I move, once I put the habit on. How that changes the way I stand, the way I sit, the way I conduct myself.
And whether or not I'm maybe in life a more kind of sunny person, this is a very traditional conservative person who plays by the books and wants things done right.
Williams: Now, you mentioned, you yourself are maybe a sunnier person and your resume reflects that you've performed in things like “Much Ado About Nothing” and “A Chorus Line” and “The Producers.” Has this role felt like a departure for you, or something kind of different?
Ziemba: It is sort of different and new. I've played nuns before, but in “Nunsense,” so they were funny nuns and singing and dancing nuns. And this is not the case, this is more realistic.
Not that nuns don't have a good time and are wonderful people, but they are very serious, and they have taken very serious vows, and they are there to help others and be there for others and not to be there just for themselves. And so it's a very different side of me that I must convey. And I think that's inside of me.
It is something that's a challenge. And yet it's finding power in the stillness and power in somebody who has not always been able to convey their feelings outright, but had to hold a lot back. She gets to speak her mind in this and ask questions of herself and others.
Williams: Have you learned anything about yourself as you were kind of mentioning this different side of you?
Ziemba: Yes, I’ve come to realize that I'm sort of like a traditionalist myself. I was brought up with having a very strong faith and yet I'm not, I'm not like a regular worshiper. I don’t — you know, I'm not a regular churchgoer anymore, like I was when I was a kid, but so much of that made who I am today.
And so playing a character like this, I relate to her to a point that I feel for her: The fact that she's questioning her faith and questioning everything she's been brought up with, and every bit everything she's learned her whole life long, a woman now in her 60s.
You know, there's a lot of life there that's been lived and to question that all of a sudden, and say, hmm, “maybe I'm not right, maybe there's another way of looking at something.” I feel that I'm doing that even myself in life.
Williams: Have you found yourself thinking about your own relationship with your faith by navigating this material?
Ziemba: I have definitely tried to see the correlations between growing up in a pretty religious family. You know, we always went to church on Sunday, I sang in the choir, I mean, that's a lot of how I learned to sing and how I felt confident singing, and then was able to use that later in my profession. So it wasn't such a bad thing.
There are some really good things about being in church and the fellowship and the community that it brings. But then there is always another side, just like anything. When the individual gets lost, … and you don't have any thoughts of your own. That's when it gets dangerous. And so I'm thinking a lot about that.
Williams: And what do you hope that audiences think about or take away from this performance?
Ziemba: I believe audiences will come away with many, many thoughts, because it's not — it's not cut and dry. It's not black and white.
It's how you feel about existence and our country and your family and relationships and everything.
It just really gets you in the gut, and in the heart.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
